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Gaea or Ge, the personification
of Mother Earth, and the daughter of Chaos. She was the mother and wife
of Father Heaven, who was personified as Uranus. They were the parents
of the earliest living creatures: the Titans; the Cyclopes; and the Giants,
or Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed Ones). Fearing and hating the Giants,
despite the fact that they were his sons, Uranus imprisoned them in a secret
place on earth, leaving the Cyclopes and Titans at large. Gaea, enraged
at this favoritism, persuaded her son, the Titan Cronus, to overthrow his
father. He emasculated Uranus, and from his blood Gaea brought forth the
Giants and the three avenging goddesses the Erinyes. Her last and most
terrifying offspring was Typhon, a 100-headed monster, who, although conquered
by the god Zeus, was believed to spew forth the molten lava flows of Mount
Etna.
Galatea, one of the 50
Nereids, the daughters of Nereus, the old man of the sea. The gay, mocking
sea nymph was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, an ugly giant with one huge
eye in the middle of his forehead. Galatea did not return his love, however;
she teased and ridiculed him, arousing his hopes with kind words and then
rejecting him. In later legends, although her attitude toward the lovelorn
Cyclops grew kinder, Polyphemus never won her. Galatea finally fell in
love with Acis, a handsome young prince, whom Polyphemus killed in a jealous
rage. In Roman mythology, Galatea was the name of a statue of a beautiful
woman that was brought to life by Venus, goddess of love, in response to
the prayers of the sculptor Pygmalion, who had fallen in love with his
creation.
Ganymede , a handsome
young Trojan prince whom the god Zeus, in the guise of an eagle, snatched
from the midst of his companions and bore up to Mount Olympus. He was granted
immortality and replaced Hebe, goddess of youth, as cupbearer to the gods.
Ganymede was later identified with the constellation Aquarius, “the Water
Bearer.”
Golden Fleece, the fleece
of the winged ram Chrysomallus. The ram was sent by the god Hermes to rescue
Phrixus and Helle, the two children of the Greek king Athamas and his wife,
Nephele. Athamas had grown indifferent to his wife and had taken Ino, the
daughter of King Cadmus, for his second wife. Ino hated her stepchildren,
especially Phrixus, because she wanted her own son to succeed to the throne.
Realizing that her children were in grave danger because of the jealousy
of their stepmother, Nephele prayed to the gods for help. Hermes sent her
Chrysomallus, the winged ram, whose fleece was made of gold. The ram snatched
the children up and bore them away on his back. Soaring into the air, he
flew eastward, but as he was crossing the strait that divides Europe and
Asia, Helle slipped from his back and fell into the water. The strait where
she was drowned was named for her: the Sea of Helle, or the Hellespont.
The ram safely landed Phrixus in Colchis, a country on the Black Sea that
was ruled by King Aeëtes. There he was hospitably received and, in
gratitude to the gods for saving his life, sacrificed Chrysomallus at the
temple of the god Zeus. Phrixus then gave the precious Golden Fleece to
Aeëtes, who placed it in a sacred grove under the watchful eye of
a dragon that never slept. Many years later, the Argonauts led by Phrixus's
cousin, the Greek hero Jason, recovered the Golden Fleece with the help
of the daughter of King Aeëtes, the sorceress Medea who, out of love
for Jason, put the dragon to sleep.
Gordian Knot, complex
knot tied by Gordius, king of Phrygia and father of Minos. Gordius was
a Phrygian peasant who became king because he was the first man to drive
into town after an oracle had commanded his countrymen to select as ruler
the first person who would drive into the public square in a wagon. In
gratitude, Gordius dedicated his wagon to the god Zeus and placed it in
the grove of the temple, tying the pole of the wagon to the yoke with a
rope of bark. The knot was so intricately entwined that no one could undo
it. A saying developed that whoever succeeded in untying the difficult
knot would become the ruler of all Asia. Many tried, but all failed. According
to legend, even Alexander the Great was unable to untie the Gordian knot,
so he drew his sword and cut it through with a stroke. The expression “to
cut the Gordian knot” is used to refer to a situation in which a difficult
problem is solved by a quick and decisive action.
Gorgon, one of three monstrous
daughters of the sea god Phorcys and his wife, Ceto. The Gorgons were terrifying,
dragonlike creatures, covered with golden scales and having snakes for
hair. They had huge wings and round, ugly faces; their tongues were always
hanging out, and they had large, tusklike teeth. They lived on the farthest
side of the western ocean, shunned because their glance turned persons
to stone. Two of the Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, were immortal; Medusa
alone could be killed. The hero Perseus, a gallant but foolish young man,
volunteered to kill Medusa and bring back her head. With the help of the
deities Hermes and Athena, Perseus cut off Medusa's head. From her blood
sprang the winged horse Pegasus, her son by the god Poseidon.
Graces, the three goddesses
of joy, charm, and beauty. The daughters of the god Zeus and the nymph
Eurynome, they were named Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia
(Good Cheer). The Graces presided over banquets, dances, and all other
pleasurable social events, and brought joy and goodwill to both gods and
mortals. They were the special attendants of the divinities of love, Aphrodite
and Eros, and together with companions, the Muses, they sang to the gods
on Mount Olympus, and danced to beautiful music that the god Apollo made
upon his lyre. In some legends Aglaia was wed to Hephaestus, the craftsman
among the gods. Their marriage explains the traditional association of
the Graces with the arts; like the Muses, they were believed to endow artists
and poets with the ability to create beautiful works of art. The Graces
were rarely treated as individuals, but always together as a kind of triple
embodiment of grace and beauty. In art they are usually represented as
lithe young maidens, dancing in a circle.
